Left Behind: Eternal Forces

Left Behind: Eternal Forces has garnered its share of controversy because of …

The theology of Left Behind

Left Behind is obviously a Christian game, but not all Christians agree with the theology behind the game. The Left Behind books and game all reflect an eschatology called "dispensational premillennialism." Simply put, eschatology is the study of the "last things," or end times.

Christian eschatology agrees on one central tenet: that Jesus Christ will return to "judge the quick and the dead," as the ancient Apostle's Creed puts it. How exactly that will happen is another matter entirely. Eschatology is generally broken down into three views: premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. Premillennialism itself has two subtypes—the aforementioned dispensational premillennialism and historical premillenialism.

All three eschatologies are based on particular readings of the apocalyptic writings of the Bible, most notably the Book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament and, to a lesser extent, the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. An in-depth treatment of the whys and wherefores of Christian eschatology is beyond the scope of this brief overview, but we wanted to at least give you some background on Left Behind.

The millennium in question is described in Revelation 20:

I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil, or Satan, and chained him up for a thousand years; he threw him into the abyss, shutting and sealing it over him, so that he might not seduce the nations again till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let loose for a little while.

I saw thrones, and on them sat those to whom judgement was committed. I saw the souls of those who, for the sake of God's word and their witness to Jesus, had been beheaded, those who had not worshipped the beast and its image or received the market on forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, though the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and whole are those who share in this first resurrection! Over them the second death has no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him for the thousand years.

When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be let loose from his prison, and he will come out to seduce the nations in the four quarters of the earth. He will muster them for war, the hosts of Gog and Magog, countless as the sands of the sea. They marched over the breadth of the land and laid siege to the camp of God's people and the city that he loves. But fire came down on them from heaven and consumed them. Their seducer, the Devil, was flung into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been flung to be tormented day and night for ever.

— Revelation 20:1-10 (Revised English Bible)

Dispensational premillennialists interpret the thousand-year period described in Revelation 20 literally, and believe that it will be inaugurated after a seven-year "Great Tribulation" (where Left Behind takes place), which will in turn take place after the rapture. The term "dispensational" refers to periods in history where God administers and places certain responsibilities on human beings at different points in history.

Here's the timeline under dispensational premillennialism:

Rapture occurs:All Christians bodily transported to meet Jesus in the air and head up to heaven for the duration of the tribulation. Christians will then return to Earth at the end of the Great Tribulation with Jesus at the Second Coming.

Great Tribulation: A seven-year period further subdivided into two three-and-a-half-year periods. All the world will be united under a single ruler (the Antichrist) and humankind will be met with any number of plagues and other maladies. During this period, people can still repent and become Christians, and those who turn to God will form the basis of the resistance to the Antichrist. The Great Tribulation will end with the second coming of Jesus Christ who will inaugurate the millennium. Left Behind: Eternal Forcestakes place during this period.

Millennium: A thousand-year reign of peace on earth concluded by the aforementioned rebellion by Satan and the creation of a new heaven and new earth.

That—in a very concise nutshell—is premillennial eschatology.

Other views

Amillennialism

Amillennialists interpret the millennium in Revelation 20 strictly figuratively. They believe that the church is in the millennial age, with Christ reigning over the church from heaven. Satan is currently bound, under this view, being constrained from preventing the spread of the gospel. Amillennialism dates back to the early church, with St. Augustine of Hippo one of its earliest adherents in the fourth century.

Some evangelicals are amillennialists, as are Christians of other stripes, including the Roman Catholic church.

Postmillennialism

Postmillennialists may or may not hold to a literal millennium of a thousand years. Those who believe in a literal millennium hold that it will be inaugurated at some point in the future after the forces of good gradually defeat the forces of evil here on earth. Once this happens, Christ will return and the millennium will begin. Those who see the millennium as figurative believe that it has already begun, with the forces of good moving inexorably forward.

Postmillennialism was the dominant eschatological view for evangelical Christianity up until the mid-to-late 19th century, when it was largely supplanted in favor of premillennialism. Today, it is arguably the minority eschatological view in Protestant churches, and is more common among the "mainline" denominations.

Historical premillennialism

Historical premillennialism is similar to dispensational premillennialism in its view of the Great Tribulation and a literal millennium. However, it holds that the Rapture will come at the end of the Great Tribulation, meaning that Christians will be stuck here on earth fighting the Antichrist, with believers raptured at the end of the seven-year period to meet Christ in the air and return with him to inaugurate the millennium.

History

As the presence of competing millennial views may have tipped you off, premillennialism—dispensational or otherwise—is not universally accepted among Christians and all churches. Broadly speaking, fundamentalists are almost always premillennialists, as are many evangelicals. Many fundamentalist and evangelical churches and institutions have doctrinal statements expressing a premillennialist eschatology.

In terms of doctrinal history, dispensational premillennialism is a comparatively recent development. Although historical premillennialism has roots in the early church, the dispensational premillennialist theology of Left Behind has its origins with the English Puritans of the 17th century, but its present form can be traced to Plymouth Brethren preacher John Nelson Darby. Although others had worked out a detailed version of the end times, they made the error of predicting an exact time for the Second Coming. Needless to say, they were wrong.

Darby was among the first to divide up history into dispensations and avoided the perils of setting a future date by putting the fulfillment of the prophecies in the future and placing the Christian church in a state of "suspended animation" with regards to God's prophetic timetable. That way, the events leading up to and culminating with the rapture and Great Tribulation would occur at some undetermined point in the future, with "signs of the time" informing watchful believers of when the hour was nigh. Starting in the 1860s, premillennial dispensationalism gained popularity with American evangelicals until it came to its current place of prominence in evangelical and fundamentalist eschatology.